More than 20 million people watched Kavanaugh hearing

More than 20 million people watched the gripping testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and the woman who accused him of sexual assault in the 1980s, Christine Blasey Ford, on six television networks.

The drama over Kavanaugh’s nomination continued Friday with yet another twist, when Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake successfully called for a week-long FBI investigation. TV networks again set aside regular programming to cover it.

The Nielsen company estimated the viewership for Thursday’s all-day hearing on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC. There were other networks that covered it, but Nielsen did not immediately have estimates of the additional viewership.